May 2013

31/05/2013

Here is a short heads-up on some of the interesting inputs from the project management world with relevans for Business Analysts:

The organisational value of the project will in the future be something that will be owned, managed, and controlled by the business and it will evolve throughout the entire project life cycle. Today, in many project management methodologies, the value of the project is determined at project start, fixed in business case, project charter and the like - and is rarely updated. That is about to change. It is difficult to identify all project benefits up front, and the business must continuously evaluate and monitor if the project benefits are the desired ones and if the project is on track in order to reach those benefits. For the business analyst it means that the project value/benefits will be changing, and that it is ok to identify benefits as the project evolves. It also means that the benefits identified by the business analyst can now be addressed directly to the business and not risk simply being ignored by a project manager more keen on just delivering the deliverables identified at project start.

The managing effort will get more attention in the future than the focus on methodologies and models. It will have more relevance to get the right think done, involve the right people, get the most value out of your team than following and mastering a specific methodology.

The projects are getting more and more complex, and the projects are continuously under time pressure and budget pressure. Therefore the transaction costs must be lowered. There are no longer time and energy left to micro-plan, micro-manage and follow methodologies just of the sake of the methodology. You need ways to produce outputs fast. You need to produce outputs without having to be managed in details by a manager - you have to be able to think and work on your own.

Welcome to All About Requirements. I hope you are visiting because you, just like me, are absolutely passionate about business process analysis, use cases, and requirements in general. Thank you for visiting.
- John